Poets Laureate

Kay Ryan, award-winning poet, mountain bike rider and self-described "modern hermit," will soon be going to Washington. The Library of Congress announced today that the lifelong Californian, whose compressed, metaphysical poetry has been compared to Emily Dickinson's, will succeed Charles Simic as the 16th U.S. poet laureate, starting in the fall. The appointment lasts for one year and comes with a $35,000 salary, plus $5,000 for travel, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday appointed a USC English professor and author as California's next poet laureate. Carol Muske-Dukes founded the school's graduate program in literature and creative writing. She has written seven books of poetry, four novels and two essay collections. Her most recent work, "Sparrow," was a National Book Award finalist. She also founded and taught in a creative-writing program at a women's prison on Rikers Island in New York.

The poets laureate of the United States and Great Britain will team up for three readings of their own work and that of their contemporaries. Donald Hall of the United States and Andrew Motion of England will appear together in Chicago on May 7, Washington on May 10 and London on June 6. All three will be free.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic, who learned English as a teenage immigrant, will be the new U.S. poet laureate, the Library of Congress announced Thursday. Simic, who lives in Strafford, N.H., will replace another New Hampshire poet, Donald Hall of Wilmot, who said Thursday he was delighted by Simic's selection. The poet laureate program promotes poetry across the nation.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic, who learned English as a teenage immigrant from Yugoslavia, will be the new U.S. poet laureate, the Library of Congress announced Thursday. Simic, who lives in Strafford, will succeed another New Hampshire resident, Donald Hall of Wilmot. The poet laureate program promotes poetry across the nation. "I'm overwhelmed," Simic said. Simic taught at the University of New Hampshire for 34 years before moving to emeritus status.

Strafford, N.H. Imagine the new poet laureate of the United States in a blue, short-sleeved linen shirt and blue jeans. He is 69 years old. His neatly cut hair is white and gray. He has the squared jaw of an Eastern European, with a perpetual, almost sly half-smile that moves from left to right up his face. He is standing on his wooden deck by the shores of Bow Lake. He shrugs a lot, as if the answers to all the questions one might ask a poet could be turned back on the interlocutor.

Jack Hirschman, a prolific Beat Generation poet known for decades of social activism, has been selected as San Francisco's new poet laureate, Mayor Gavin Newsom said. "I want someone who will challenge the status quo," Newsom said of the 72-year-old poet. The appointment surprised some because Hirschman supported Newsom's opponent, Green Party member Matt Gonzalez, in the city's 2003 mayoral race.

"There were times when I thought I'd never be published," Donald Hall was saying, just days after learning, by fax, that he had been named poet laureate of the United States. "Times when my reputation sank." After his 1978 collection "Kicking the Leaves," some critics argued that it was poignant to read a poet who had once shown such promise. Hall, though, is having the last laugh.

Ted Kooser, winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for poetry, has been appointed to a second one-year term as U.S. poet laureate. The American poet laureate, named by the librarian of Congress, does not write poems on public events as does his British counterpart, who is appointed for life. He performs a minimum of official duties so he can pursue his own ideas to promote poetry.

April is national poetry month. If this comes as news to you, don't feel bad. This annual occasion to renew and deepen the American love of verse is too often drowned out by the ballyhoo around, say, National VD Awareness Month. Indeed, statistically, more people are likely to contract syphilis in April than read a book of poetry. If you're asking, I'll take poetry.